This invention relates to a flat panel display and, more particularly, to a display of the row-backlight column-shutter type.
An article by T. J. Nelson, J. S. Patel and P. D. T. Ngo in Applied Physics Letters, vol. 52, No. 13, Mar. 28, 1988, pages 1034-1036, describes the basic concept and configuration of a flat panel display of the row-backlight column-shutter type. Further details of such a display are set forth by Nelson and Patel in an article in Display, Vol. 10, April 1989, pages 76-80. In both articles, an array of ferroelectric liquid crystals is described as forming an advantageous column-shutter component for the display.
In the aforementioned second-cited article and in a copending commonly assigned application, Ser. No. 180,442, filed Apr. 12, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,215 various instrumentalities are described for making the row-backlight component of such a flat panel display. These instrumentalities include conventional arrays of electroluminescent, plasma or vacuum-fluorescent elements arranged in rows that are sequentially activated to emit light.
Efforts have continued by workers skilled in the art aimed at trying to devise yet additional ways in which to make an array of emitters suitable for forming the row-backlight component of a flat panel display. These efforts have been motivated by a desire to improve the row-backlight component in such ways as by increasing its peak brightness and efficiency, by decreasing the persistence of a row after it is deactivated, by facilitating row-by-row addressability of the array and by making the component relatively easy to manufacture. It was recognized that these efforts, if successful, could provide a flat panel display whose attractiveness for important commercial applications would be significantly enhanced.